Greece official calls for rejection of bailout deal via referendum

Greece official calls for rejection of bailout deal via referendum

Greece’s development minister is calling on the financially beleaguered nation to reject a bailout deal in a July 5 national referendum, the Associated Press reported Friday. Panayiotis Lafazanis predicted Greeks will answer “with a resounding no” in the planned vote.

Lafazanis spoke after an emergency cabinet meeting during which Prime Minister Alexis Tsipras announced his intention to call the referendum. Several media reports in Greece also reported on plans for national referendum, which would come days after the deadline for reaching a decision to resolve the country’s debt crisis.

The reported timing of the vote raises more questions than answers. European leaders had given Greece, and themselves, a Saturday deadline to reach a deal with Athens over loan repayments. After a week of intense negotiations, the two sides have failed to come up with a mutually acceptable plan that would allow Greece to pay the International Monetary Fund debts worth $1.8 billion by June 30.